: Hi, Y'all-Has anyone out there used a radial arm saw to rip strips?
Greg,
Went to bed thinking about this. I'm not partisan to either camp. While you can't beat a table saw for general ripping, even it requires a setup to produce quality strips. My first stationary tool was Sears radial arm saw. It was years before I got a table saw. I still use it for cross cutting, angled bevels, and all the other tricks it can do that don't justify a dedicated machine. Like all radials it has to be regularly checked to keep it accurate. When you turret that head around you want to be sure that it's parallel with the fence.

As Paul notes the advantage of the radial is the ease with which you can replace the standard fence with another, longer fence. Depending on the length of lumber you're working with, a fence of say 8-10' would ease the task of accurate cuts. To keep a fence that long straight, I would make up a "T" by fastening a straight 1 by 3 to the back and perpendicular to you fence. Counter sunk sheetrock screws every six inches will do fine. Making the backer 1 by 3 straight will be good practice with the jack plane, 'cause you're not likely to find one at Home Despot.

While at the Home Despot check out their cutting station. The closer you can come to their setup the better results you'll have. You don't need the fancy roller tables if you have wax, but a continous surface from infeed to outfeed is safer and makes handling long lumber much easier than roller stands.

As for the featherboards you'll want one on the table well before the blade to guide the lumber back to the fence, a second also on the table at the blade to keep the lumber against the fence and a third perpendicular to the table and before the blade to hold the lumber to the table and prevent kick back. About 2-3 feet beyond the blade you'll want a second splitter to prevent the kerf from closing and pinching the blade, particularly at the end of the cut. I'll post a pix of an auxillary splitter you can make for this purpose. While all this setup may sound time consuming, the preparation will make the actual ripping operation much faster, safer, more accurate and less exciting. Good luck!